Well you know where they are going if they say “but” after it, they are going to say something reactionary and rightwing thinking its ok for them to say because they are woke liberals or whatever. In their minds they have to build up a certain amount of “left points” through posturing and virtue signaling, which they can then “cash in” and spend to say the reactionary opinions they actually hold. They think everyone is like this, everyone is reactionary deep down but puts on a facade of morality.

This is why you get figures like Musk, Chapelle, JK Rowling, Bill Maher, Obama, centrist corporate democrats, etc. who are becoming more virulently reactionary as time goes on when they used to be considered socially leftwing. They were always this reactionary, they just were “building up” their points before and now in their late careers they are “spending” them.

They literally are unable to grasp that there’s people who are not reactionary whatsoever and truly believe in communism. This is partially why voting for Democrats is never gonna get you anywhere, Democrats fundamentally believe the exact same thing as Republicans when the chips are down - they just cover it in 20 layers of moralistic posturing that slowly melts away under pressure.

I always read it as “I might call myself a socialist but I’ve never actually met one.”